A dramatic convention is a set of rule which both the audience and actors are familiar with and which act as a useful way of quickly signifying the nature of the action or of a character.

All forms of theatre have dramatic conventions, some of which may be unique to that particular form, such as the poses used by actors in Japanese kabuki theatre to establish a character, or the stock character of the black-cloaked, moustache twirling villain in early cinema melodrama serials.

It can also include an implausible facet of a performance required by the technical limitations or artistic nature of a production and which is accepted by the audience as part of suspension of disbelief. For example, a dramatic convention in Shakespeare is that a character can move upstage to deliver a soliloquy and will not be heard by the other characters on stage. Another dramatic convention is that characters in a musical will not react strangely to another character's abruptly bursting into song. See also fourth wall.

Drama